At least one well known (and well thought of, I believe) member of this board made the decision to undergo surgery to enable weight loss, after years of morbid obesity and a great deal of effort to lose that weight through more "conventional" means without success. Nor was he sedentary in his life style as an obese man.

That surgical effort was successful, and he lost approximately one half of his pre-surgical weight - about 200 pounds lost. He has kept that weight off, has married, and has fathered a child in the years since, and gives every appearance of being happier than ever before.

He is a man of great charm, character, and compassion, just as he was as a fat man. So, for any who think that getting thin is an expression of personal self-worth, I'll ask you just to compare the expressed characters of the two members I know to have been obese and to have lost that excess weight, Gimpy Divo and Cruise Director, and judge for yourself whether body mass shows the man.